Portrayals of School Administrators in Imaginative Literature: A Content Analysis of Twenty Novels
Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis adds to a body of interpretive studies that use the arts to support social science research—in this case, an examination of school administrators in imaginative literature, specifically novels. While similar studies do exist, most only assess the extent to which surface images of these administrators are consistent with stereotypes of real-life school leaders, and thus fail to determine how each character’s leadership fully impacts the educational institution. Through a qualitative content analysis of twenty Anglo-American novels published during the 20th and 21st centuries, this investigation probes deeper into these portrayals, looking past mere surface images to explore the issues fictional administrators face and the leadership practices they adopt, a framework that serves to reveal how such portrayals offer valuable insight into educational leadership. The findings show that there exists no single, simplistic portrayal of fictional administrators and that many of the issues that confront them resemble those faced by real-life school leaders, though in the fictional world, the importance ascribed to each issue differs from that of real life. The findings also show that the notion of the “Great Man” leader is pervasive and that authors generally associate leadership with masculinity and do not conceptualize it as something done by women except in all-female settings. In addition, administrators are often portrayed as traditional managers functioning within a hierarchy, possessing goals that serve the interests of the administrators and their institutions. And finally, administrators are portrayed as exerting a direct influence on student outcomes, contrary to much of the scholarly literature that finds that leadership only indirectly impacts outcomes.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Eddie Mark
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2900764134